Chernobyl 20 Years Later

photos from This site
I must admit I did not even think to post yesterday on the accident at Chernobyl 20 years ago (April 26, 1986). "By 2005, according to the report, about 50 people – most of them emergency workers – are known to have died of either Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) or cancer as a direct consequence of the accident. A considerable increase in thyroid cancer has been observed especially among local children, though the survival rate has been high. In the long term, is the report estimates that the accident might lead to about 4000 cancer deaths among the 600 000 most exposed people." The preceeding qoute was from the link posted on the right. I have been through hundreds of hours for Hazardous Materials Response training and i have seen the potential effects of radiation poisoning and the long term health effects that manifest from it. My understanding is that the potential cancer risk is higher among people suffering radiation exposure, the town surrounding the plant has a reported 4,000 children with Thyroid cancer, 4,000 in one town think about that for minute --- 1 in 4 kids suffering Thyroid cancer, and a another portion getting another form.

Of the pictures above one shows an open photo album with an inscription that reads "May our children -- Our happiness, our joy -- live on a sunny planet!". One picture shows a fair ground ride that was part of an amusement park that was scheduled to open 5 days after the accident and was never used. One photo shows the abandoned town 2 1/2 kilometers away. One photo shows a fire truck that responded to the accident while others show the evidence of the lives that once lived in these abadoned homes and walked the streets. Rows and rows of new vehicles and buildings stand where people held their most fond memories. The government established a 30Km exclusion zone around the plant to attempt to safe-gaurd the contaiminated grounds. Currently published reports have the areas over grown with wild boars ruling the streets.

An NPR report on the accident can be found Here

There are many websites and news organizations that are reporting on the accident and showing the endless horrible photos of the dead and dying people and worse, the surviving people. The people that had to remain to clean up and get further exposure. This isn't just a Soviet Union disaster, this is one for the world. The winds of the planet are shared by every country and the earth is still exposed to the same terrible particles that injured so many. The nuclear age has been around for a while, yet is still in its infancy. To steal a qoute from a movie (I can't remember which) we have harnessed a force of nature and weild it like a kid that has found his father's gun.

Take some time and visit these websites and look up some of the more detailed postings on this event. It foreshadows the coming storm of disaster that our children and grandchildren will have to live (and die) with.